Track Listing

1. West Side Story Suite
2. Lonely Town
3. Make Our Garden Grow
4. -8. Serenade
5. New York, New York

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7747 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2001-06-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
This all-Bernstein disc includes four compositions in addition to the title piece, of which only the "Serenade" was originally written for solo violin and orchestra. John Corigliano made the arrangement of "Make Our Garden Grow," the famous final song from Candide, and William David Brohn, who had long been close to Bernstein's music, arranged two songs from On the Town. His West Side Story Suite is a free adaptation rather than an arrangement; he calls it the greatest adventure of his musical life.

However, the real hero of the recording is Joshua Bell, for whom Sony commissioned the Suite; he collaborated closely with Brohn in its creation and contributed one of the two cadenzas. Not surprisingly, its violin part, as well as those of the other arrangements, are written to his strengths, which seem to be growing and expanding all the time. His virtuosity is breathtaking and he revels in it with unbridled exuberance. His tone is ravishingly beautiful, intense, focused, pure; it can generate a warm glow and a radiant shimmer. His facility and silvery sound in the violin's topmost register have always been particularly striking and are displayed throughout to terrific effect. He handles Bernstein's multifaceted style, rhythm, and idiom with easy, natural mastery. His love and respect for the music come through in his ability to identify with its swiftly changing moods and in his strongly felt, direct expressiveness. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews

Superb marketing, solid substance
To any classical music fan dismayed by the current crossover craze, Joshua Bell's new CD at first raises familiar fears, with its flashy packaging, heavy on glossy photographs of the handsome violinist. Reading the liner notes and actually listening to the recording reveals a quite different and altogether worthy project, which has been unfairly maligned by stuffy publications as the "Strad" magazine.

Composing a virtuoso fantasy using themes from a successful work of musical theater is a time-honored tradition, brought to a peak of brilliance and musical skill by the nineteenth-century pianist and composer Franz Liszt. The title cut on Bell's new CD is not that much different from, say, Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy," a piece respectfully treated even by the likes of the Strad. By now, "West Side Story" has established itself as one of the great works of the twentieth-century musical stage, ripe for such treatment, particularly in such a spectacularly successful rethinking by Bell and William David Brohn.

Hearing Bernstein's rich melodies in this brilliant, idiomatically composed, constantly surprising setting makes it easy to overlook the inclusion of a substantial original work for violin and orchestra, the Serenade, on this disc, as well as additional settings of his theater music by Brohn and John Corigliano. Bell plays with fiery intensity in the pryotechnical passages and sweet tone in the more lyrical moments. He is well-supported by Zinman's accompaniments, the whole recorded in lush, spacious sonics.

Never mind the Strad and other naysayers--this is a rich and rewarding album that will surprise fans and skeptics of Bell, Bernstein, and crossover alike.

A BRILLIANT ALTERNATIVE
I am not normally a huge fan of 'alternate' versions of any kind of music, especially that of Broadway show scores. But this CD proves me wrong. If you love WEST SIDE STORY and its music which cannot leave your mind for days after you hear it, even if you've heard it and heard it for years and years....then you will be thrilled with William David Brohn's arrangement of alot of the music from the show in his WEST SIDE STORY SUITE for violin and orchestra. Brohn is one of Broadway's finest, most honored arrangers and it shows in this suite. Nothing of Leonard Bernstein's music is tampered with; Joshua Bell's violin sings and the orchestra provides a rich and varied accompaniment. Bell is one of the very few first class violinists of his generation who is equally at home in popular music as well as classical, as Heifitz was. John Corigliano has arranged "Make Our Garden Grow" which is the final song in Bernstein's CANDIDE and it is magnificent. Do I miss the startling and moving entrance of the a cappella choir from the original? Certainly. But this is beautiful music in a lovely arrangement. Before Bell's recording, I had only heard Isaac Stern's performance of Bernstein's SYMPOSIUM. Bell's performance matches (surpasses?) it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Bernstein Would Love This!
William Brohn, who wrote the West Side Story Suite, has paid a loving tribute to Mr. Bernstein in this lyrical and wonderful piece. Oh, Joshua Bell, I love your interpretation of the music, most especially during the portion devoted to the classic "Maria." West Side Story lovers will never hear better. And, thank you, Mr. Bell, for introducing me to Bernstein's Serenade. I can hardly wait to hear what you do next.